Skiggy

This is Skiggy trying to be a scarey Halloween cat. Skiggy is 15 years old and my favorite cat. I raised him and his brothers on a bottle after their mom died when they were a week old. Skiggy is the last one.

Stinky Spelling

You got it my spelling stinks. Guess I really should edit and spell check before I post.

This Week

BlackJack, the horse with the injured leg is doing much better. In fact he is almost well. I started lunging him this week and he seems to be enjoying it. He is diffently glad he is being turned out everyday instead of being cooped up in his small pen.
We got a load of hay on Tuesday. Alphala. It's $6.00 a bale. Guess it will never go down to a decent price again. (like gas). The farmer I buy the grass hay from is trying to get a last cut. But rain has not been cooperating. His first try resulted in the hay getting wet and only good for cows.

I gave BlackJack and Nita a bath. I like to do it at this time of year to get all the gunky, sticky, smelly fly spray off of them before really cold weather comes. I don't bath horses in winter. Don't have the falicities for it. (No indoor bath area, with hot water heater. Some horses are oh-so pampered.) At least Jack and Nita were nice and clean and soft when I finished with them.

Now to do Star.

Wood shed

For the past 2 years we have struggled with the firewood under a couple of old sheets of plywood and a taryp. This year we decided to build a woodshed to keep the rain, and snow off the wood. And to have a place to split the wood. So what should be so hard about building a woodshed? I figured we could do it in a weekend easy. We seemed to have all the materials already --- posts for the corners, 2 X 4's for the supports, and rafters, and plywood for the roof, and even some left over sheets of tin to put on top of the plywood. My perfectionest husband, Lee, has spent all weekend on this project and the shed is only about half done. We had to use the leval and the square to make sure it was leval and square with each and every little bit we did. He was driving me nuts. We did get the posts in and the plywood roof on with the plywood back wall up. Still have to do the two ends and the tin on top. And of course then have to move all the firewood we cut a few weeks ago into that new, and perfect woodshed.

I Want--------

I Want….”“Mikey, don’t touch that.”

The little pre-school age boy pulled his hand slowly back from the bag of chips he had been reaching for.

“Michael, Mommy says don’t touch ANYTHING.”

Again the little boy pulled his hand back, this time from the box of cookies, watching his mom as she moved on down the isle of the grocery store. She added some snack crackers to the shopping cart, while talking baby talk to the fussy, whining baby sitting in the seat of the cart. “Come on, Mikey.”

After a moment Michael followed.They turned down another isle, moving by and around other shoppers. Several things were added to the cart. The baby cried.

“I want cookies,” demanded Michael.

“No,” said his mom, picking up a can of green beans, and then a bag of noodles. They moved on.

“I want cookies – cook-ies – cook – kook-eyes, cook-ies,” sang Michael. “Want cook-ies – kook-eyes.”

“Mikey, please be quiet. If you’re quiet I’ll get you some cookies. Okay, Mikey.”

His mom was getting more flustered as she tried to finish her shopping. Michael knew he had her going now. “Goodie, goodie, goodie,” he sang. “I’m going to get cookies - cook-ies, kook-eyes.”

“Mikey, be quiet,” wailed his mom while the baby echoed her. She checked her list. “Need to get milk, juice, and baby cereal. And some hamburger.” She added a jar of pickles to the cart, and crammed a pacifier into the mouth of the crying baby. She wished she could give one to Mikey, too.

“Cookies, kook-eyes. I want cookies – kook-eyes, more kook-eyes. Kook - .” Michael stopped singing. “Mommy, Mommy. What’s that? Mommy, are those eyeballs.”

Michael pointed at a jar. “Those look like eyeballs, Mommy.” He took a step backward. “Mommy, that jar there. The eyeballs are moving. Their rolling around in the jar, Mommy, how do they do that.”

“Of course not,” said his mom, hardly glancing at where he was pointing. “Those are olives, Mikey. Come on.”

“No, there not ‘lives. Their eyeballs. Kook-eye balls. There looking at me. Make them stop looking at me. I don’t like kook-eye balls.” Michael grabbed his mom around the leg and hid his face, then peaked back at the jar.

“Stop that, Mikey, those are only olives.” She pried him loose from her leg.

Michael looked back at the jar. “Don’t look at me, kook-eyes,” he yelled, and flung a small fist at the jar, barely grazing it. It was just enough to cause the jar to fall to the floor, where the glass shattered and the contents rolled here and there, helter-skelter.

“Mommy! The kook-eyes jumped off onto the floor.”

“Now look what you’ve done, Michael!”

“They jumped, Mommy! Honest they did!”

"You’re going to get it now, Michael. Do you hear me? Your in ….in….trouble….now,……” her voice slid to a halt, as she took in the sight of the broken glass and the still rolling ---- jumping, ----- and rolling ----- eyeballs.

There were hazel eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes, and green eyes; some with the eyelids still attached. And all those many eyes were staring at her. As she watched back, her mouth still open, she gave a little screech. When she did one of the eyeballs winked at her.

Horrified at the sight she and several other customers screamed some more as they began to move away from the wildly, rolling eyeballs, and toward the exit doors.

An excited stock boy yelled for a manager, wanting to know what he was supposed to do with the run-a-way eyeballs.

“Mikey, we’re leaving. NOW!” shouted Mikey’s mom as she grabbed the boy by the arm, and drug him with her, while pushing the cart with the screaming baby, toward the nearest door.

Eyeballs continued to roll after her while Mikey sang about Kook-eyes.

Halloweeen

Halloween is just around the corner. Do you beleive in ghosts, goblins, spooks, witches, vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night? I have always like the supernatural stories. Shows like Twilight Zone, X Files, The Night Stalker, Lost, ect. And I remember sitting around the kitchen table, or the campfire, or fireplace in the late fall listening to 'ghost stories' told by my parents, grandparents, and other relitives and friends.

Notes

Hoping to break my writers block, I have compiled pape after page of notes, outlines, and ideas for new stories. Hopefully I can now put some of them to use.

To All Who Read

My biggest fantasy is that some agent, or publisher will see and read the stories I have posted on my blogs and decide to represent me.

And I utterly tired of these two stories. I have been over and over and over these two stories, or novels, so many times I am throughly disgusted with them. I have sincere hopes I never have to read, or edit them again. Or at least not until someone wants to be my agent or publish them.

For that reason I am taking Josie's suggestion and trying to write a new noval in one month. Again it is a contest. Go to www.nanowrimo.org to sign up. You are expected to write a novel in the month of November. You start on the 1st and end on the 30th. You must reach the goal of 50,000 words. But if you don't, so what. It is all in good fun.

Check it out.

words

If you remember I entered the contest at Contest Junkies, and of course, I didn't win. But I did get a fair amount of comments from the other readers at my email address.

Several people have asked me which were my stories. They were the ones entitled Cowboy Snapshots, and Life Change. I am putting the same thing I entered on my other blog, Wonderin' Words, so you can read it. If you want.

Chores

Does eveyone have as much trouble getting the household chores done as I do? What a drag it is to wash dishes, do laundry, vacum the floors, dust and any of the other 101 jobs that taking care of a home involves.
And its never finished.

Bull Riding Finals

So what do you think? Will Justin McBride win the champian ship this year? Or will it be one of the other 45 riders that will be competing at the finals the last week of October? I haven't decided yet. It looks like it may be a toss up. Remember last year when Adriano Moraes was sure to win after Justin McBride had broken his leg, even though he was still competing. Then Adriano injuried his arm and suddenly it was Mike Lee winning.

For more about the Professional Bull Riders go to www.pbrnow.com

Butterfly

This is one I took last week that I want to share with everyone.

Dalia

Had to let everyone see the photo my sister sent to me. Thanks, Sis.

2005

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2005 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family isthat they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see ifanyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of thescreen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't havethe first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause forpanic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward thismessage.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 onthis list. AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.Go on, forward/send this to your friends ...you know you want to!

Great Comment

After all the bad comments it was so great to see a good comment. Many thanks to the person from the midwest with the old horse. You want to live here? I want to live where ever you are. Wish I had more land as you do, and I am sure it has grass on it, instead of sand. Take care of that old horse, all horses deserve good care. They are such wonderful creatures.

Comments

I tried leaving a comment now that I have the 'word verification' on.
And it's really easy. It may not stop all of the nasty comments but should stop the automated ones.

SPAM

AAAAAaahhhha. That was a big sigh.

It is so terrable that in this day and age that regardless what you do, someone is bound and determined to find a way to try to make money off of you. I am referring to all the unwanted spam-type advertizements that are popping up in the comments section of these personal blogs.

I am being forced to fix my blog so that machines cannot leave ads, spam, and/or unrelated site information in the comments, as well as some other individuals who only want to leave messages that I wouldn't want to be seen by anyone, let alone children.

From now on if you want to leave a comment you will need to do a

'word verification'. I am sure you have seen them before. A little box where you have to tye in the letters and number shown. They have been popping up on some of the email sites when the site thinks you might be spamming. (Like when I send several emails to family and friends with the same subject line, like at holiday time, but make each one a little bit different so it is more personal.)

So I apoligize to any one that might be offened that I am doing this, but I wish to remind you that you did not want to see some of these comments.

Bull Riding

Let me know if your intersted in bull riding. I really like to watch it. From highschool rodeos all the way to the professional bull riding. Check out the site www.pbrnow.com

Mountain Top

From way up on top of a moutain mesa looking down into San Diego Canyon where the village of Jemez Spring, New Mexico is.

Tuffee

We took our Border Collie, Tuffee, with us when we went woodcutting. She loves to go, and is really good at staying close. I certainly wouldn't recomend Border Collies to just any one. They are a really high energy dog, but with the right training make a wonderful pet. I had always been interested in Border Collies but knew they needed a lot of room to run, more than we had when we lived in town. But then we moved to a rural area, and then my nephew's girlfriend found a puppy, and the owner couldn't be found, and they were moving, and I got the puppy which became Tuffee. Such a round-a-bout way to get a Border Collie.

Dead Tree

We discovered this dead tree had fallen across a moutain road. We cut it up to use for firewood and did a service by clearing the road for other travelers.

Wood Cutting

We go wood cutting every fall so that we can heat the house with wood in our wood stove and save a little on heating fuel. I really prefer the warmth given out by an old fashioned wood stove in comparison to our natural gas furnace, or any other kind of furnace. It seems like the heat from the wood warms you up faster than any other kind.
So we went up into the Jemez Mountains yesterday and cut a load of wood. What we got was mostly pine. Dead and down, as it states on the permit that is required by the forest service. Anotherwords it must be a tree that had died and fallen down. You are not allowed to cut down a dead tree that is still standing. A dead standing tree is still useful to the forest. It's roots are still holding soil that might otherwise wash away. And the top it home to many birds and small animals.
Lee, my husband, and I always look forward to wood cutting. It give us an excuse to go to the mountains. It is lots of work, and I mean hard work, but always worth it. He does most of the chainsaw work and I lend a hand at loading. We usually get mostly pine, but if we can find a good, dry, hard chunk of oak, or spruce so much the better. And we don't object to throwing in a piece of two of aspen either, although aspen does burn faster.

Black Cloud

We had rain here on the desert today. It started at about 6 am when it woke me with a heck of a thunder and lightning storm with a little bit of rain. When I got up I couldn't see the Sandia Mountains, just a big cloud hanging over the mountian. It cleared off but came back again this afternoon. Or anyway a big black cloud did. It came from the west and moved east over Albuquerque. I watched as it came in. It was a very big, very strange, weird cloud. It hung very low in the sky and moved quickly. I was sure we were in for another storm. And we were. It dropped hail and rain for about ten minutes and then moved on. Not near as bad as I expected.

Bad News

We should never take life for granted. I do it all the time and I am sure that most of you do, too. Yesterday I got the news that a friend of mine has cancer and is not expected to live for more that a few months at most. She is only in her mid sixties, just retired and had expected to have several years to travel. Her only symptons were feeling tired. I feel tired all the time and the doctors tell me to suck up, that everyone feels tired in our fast paced life.
Maybe we should all take a second look at what is going on in our lives. Especially the doctors that only care about the money they are getting everytime we come to the office and complain about feeling tired.

Knee Wraps

I'm still at it. Wrapping BlackJack's knee twice a day. I can not figure out how to put the bandage on it so it will stay. Of course I understand that with each step he takes it loosens up and then falls down around his hoof where it does nothing except irritate him. I have to addmit he has been very good about the whole situation. I expected him to get upset and fight me each time I had to re-do the thing. He has fussed some but not near as bad as I expected.
I ordered a whole case of stick-to-its-self leg wraps that go on top of the the bandage this morning. I had no idea that first aide supplies were so expensive. Especially for horses. I went to the store yesterday thinking I could use people stuff for the horse and it is even more expensive!